Farmers Growing Genetically Modified Crops

It is hard to put in a few words all the benefits to our family farming operation that have come from the introduction of Genetically Modified Cotton (GM).

We have been growing cotton for over 30 years and have faced the very serious challenges of insecticide resistance and strong community pressure against high chemical use and contamination issues.

Today using Bollgard cotton we are producing more cotton per hectare, more cotton per megalitre of water, more cotton per kilogram of nitrogen and more cotton per labour unit. All of this is being achieved with no heliothis sprays and only the odd spray for sucking pests. This is in stark contrast to pre-GM introduction where up to 18 heliothis sprays were being applied.

I strongly believe we are now producing our cotton crops in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly way.With the adoption of a strict Insect Resistance Management Plan and further research into new GM traits we will be growing cotton successfully for the long term.

You only have to walk through our cotton crops or look at our agronomist check sheets to see the levels of beneficial insects living and working in our crops. I get a satisfying feeling coming from the fact that I believe we are now farming more in tune with nature.